FindingMe

Save on travel

Here's a little bit of money saving information that I learned this year. We've been going to the Outer Banks with two other families for years. And, every year, each family shells out over $1,000 to stay in a luxury home for a week. We've paid as much as $4,000 total for lodging. Incredible, I know.

This year, with two families deep into the real estate and car industry, we knew we'd have to get creative to get to the Outer Banks. We looked for months for something we liked and could afford. Finally, one of my friends decided to email the realtor and ask if the owner would accept less for the week. My friend suggested almost $1,000 off the list price -- and guess what, they accepted. We were and still are flabberghasted! I guess $2500 is better than $0. So, before you decide you cannot afford a vacation this year, get creative and make an offer. All they can say is no.

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Cold Wash

My husband and I don't have a supersized house. Yet our electric and gas bills continue to amaze me. As with gasoline, these bills have skyrocketed over the last year. Honestly, I was sick of it. So, with the guarantee of our gas company to charge me less if our consumption decreased (we lock in a rate at the beginning of each year), I set out to find a way to decrease our hot water usage.

The number one way to see a substantial decrease in your hot water is to wash everything in cold water. Hmmm, seems reasonable right? But, how many of us just wash in hot or warm because our moms did? How many times do you press the button for warm wash/cold rinse because it doesn't feel right to do it all in cold water?

I'm here to tell you that for your regular laundry it's fine to wash in cold water. No one has pointed out stains on my clothes...no one has said my children smell offensive. And, my gas bill went down. It's all good!

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Did You Know: Batteries Should Stay in the Package

We go through a lot of batteries in my house. With three kids and a technically equipped mom, batteries are a must have. I have a wire basket in my laundry room that we keep stocked with a variety of batteries. I noticed recently, though, that the batteries are not lasting as long as expected.

Typically, we purchase them at SAMS Club. My son loves to open the supersize packages and drop them in the basket - wire basket, remember. Well, I recently read an article about batteries and realized what was happening with their lifecycle. I thought I would share!

Our first mistake was storing the batteries in a wire basket. They should not touch any other metal or they will lose their charge. The second mistake was allowing the positive end to touch the negative end. Evidently, this weakens the charge as well.

Now all of you handymen out there are calling me all kinds of names right now, I know. But, I really didn't know this and I'm sure there are lots of other "uninformed" people as well. So, I'm not afraid to admit my ignorance on this! Keep the batteries in their original packaging for best performance!

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Redbox Update and Warning

Yesterday, I went to my favorite place - Redbox - to get my free Monday movie. (UPDATE: After my last post, Redbox changed their policy to give a free movie one Monday a month instead of every Monday -- guess all my blog followers bombarded them!) There was a lady in front of me returning a movie. She touched the "Return a DVD" button, popped the movie in and walked away.

As I approached the box, her movie came back out. It seems she did not have the barcode facing the right direction and the machine could not read it. So, it asked her to check the barcode and re-enter. However, she was gone. Now, for a brief second I mulled the fact that I could watch the movie for free and return it, but only for a second. I simply flippd the movie over and returned it for her.

Moral of the story: NEVER walk away from the Redbox until it says your movie was returned successfully!

Movies - FREE FREE FREE

If you haven't heard about RedBox you are behind the times.

RedBox is just that -- a red box -- in stores like Royal Farms, McDonalds, Giant, Walmart, and Acme. The box dispenses movies at a cut-throat rate of ONE DOLLAR per night. So, you get the movie out of the RedBox on a Wednesday morning and, if you return it before 9PM Thursday, you pay $1. You can keep the movie additional nights and pay $1 per night. Here's a tip, though...if you are looking for a particular movie, reserve it online on the day you want to pick it up. That way, you won't be disappointed when the movie is not available. Another bonus for reserving movies online -- you get a coupon for a FREE movie.

And, here's the FREE FREE FREE part -- if you sign up to get text messages from RedBox you get a FREE movie EVERY Monday. Whoa..

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Bartering

CNN Living ran a story recently about bartering services that was interesting. The concept has been around for a long time but is picking up steam as consumers seek services but are cash poor.

While bartering is interesting, there seem to be a myriad of potential problems. How can you be sure the value of what you are providing is equal to the value of what you are receiving? What happens if there is a dispute during or after the process? Are there liability issues? Unfortunately, we are past the "Little House on the Prairie" days when neighbors just helped neighbors.

Regardless, if you want to give bartering a try, CNN recommends a couple top bartering sites like SwapThing (www.swapthing.com) and Green Apple Barter Services (www.greenapplebarter.com).

Oh, and if anyone needs an hour of computer help, I need a pedicure!

 http://www.cnn.com/2009/LIVING/wayoflife/04/21/barter.is.recession.solution/index.html)

Ice Cream for Pennies

Baskin Robbins is once again sponsoring a 31 cent scoop night in honor of firefighters all over the country.  On Wednesday, April 29, 2009 from 5-10PM (TOMORROW) run down to your local Baskin Robbins (usually in with Dunkin Donuts) and get up to three scoops of ice cream for 31 cents a scoop! On your way out, drop a couple bucks in the bucket for your fire fighters. Baskin Robbins will donate $100,000 of their own money to the cause.

You get to eat ice cream AND avoid the guilt - how great is that??

Wise Up at Wize.com

I recently discovered an awesome website called Wize (www.wize.com) and wanted to share it with you!

Wize pulls product review information together for you in one place. It crawls websites like Amazon and CNET and groups products by their best features. It also brings in customer reviews and identifies the best price found on the web.

In the next few months, we'll be in the market for a cell phone for our son. It will be his first so I'll be looking for features like ease of use and text messaging. I've already started using Wize to help!

Check it out - I bet you'll enjoy it as much as I do!

Misery Loves Company

This past holiday season was undoubtedly the worst for many people.  My husband and I found ourselves unable to share in the joy of the season because of the economic downturn.  We discovered, however, that we were not alone. Several of our friends reported the same melancholy outlook.

My gloomy thoughts made it difficult for me to write, thus the lull in my blog over the past few weeks. While I’m still not quite ready to brush off my despondency over the financial future, I am going to attempt to get back to writing - albeit my posts will likely focus on money!

So, here goes…I subscribe to a magazine called The Family Handyman (http://www.rd.com/familyhandyman/) that touts itself the #1 in DIY Home Improvement. The latest issue is, in fact, the “Money Issue”, how perfect given my present mood. In one article, the author lists eighteen ways to slash your homeowner’s insurance bill. Homeowner’s insurance? Isn’t that part of what is escrowed into my mortgage payment? Can that actually be changed other than by raising your deductible to some very scary number? It peaked my interest and, I got some pretty cool suggestions. Here are a few:

1)      Get a list of discounts from your insurance company to be sure you are not missing out on improvement discounts already performed.

2)      If your credit rating has improved, ask your agent to adjust your premium. Poor credit scores negatively impact your premiums.

3)      We all know that smoke detectors can decrease your premiums, but did you know CO detectors can too? A small investment from a local home improvement score can decrease your premium.

And, if you live in Florida, here’s a great site that allows you to compare rates based on the county you live in: http://www.shopandcomparerates.com/

I’m calling for that list of discounts today!

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Organizational Tip of the Week: Pay Your Bills Online

Bills To Pay,
originally uploaded by manmadepants.

I know you are out there shaking your head. I know this scares the pants off some of you. But keep your minds open for a couple of minutes and read on.

I’m sure you’ve seen the advertisements for online bill pay from your bank. Almost all banks now offer the service. What is it all about? Well, basically the bank sends your payments for you. It’s easy, convenient and adds to the balance we are seeking in our lives. No longer do you have to sit at your desk for hours writing checks, addressing envelopes then running to the mailbox. Simply go to your bank’s website, plug in some numbers, click submit and you are free to go play with your kids!

Here are some benefits to using this service:

• Cost. Think of the supplies you use each time you mail a payment: check, ink, envelope, stamp. Less supplies equals less costs and we all know how often the cost of stamps rise. Now consider how much businesses spend mailing you the bill – you can help them save costs, thus keeping prices lower, by opting for electronic bills instead of paper bills.
• Green. Less paper means less garbage in our landfills. It’s simple. Every little bit helps.
• Protection. While consumers tend to fear the Internet because of the sabotage risks, studies show that using online bill paying services and e-bills actually reduce identity theft. Most identity theft begins with paper. Lessen the amount of paper floating around with your identifying information on it!
• Time. Finally, it’s all about time. I want more time in my life to do what I want. Paying bills is not what I want to do. I used to spend at least four hours a week paying bills for my husband’s company. Now, I’ve streamlined that to less than an hour by utilizing online bill pay combined with downloaded reconciliations from our bank. It took some time (a couple hours) to setup my accounting software and biller information with my bank, but it was worth it.

Even I hesitated to pay my bills online and I’m a techie! But, now that I’ve made the move, there’s no going back. I love it, I love it, I love it!